As you know, I get to meet all sorts of nice and interesting people here, in Cozumel. The ones that are important to this story are my neighbours, Bob and Brindle, Canadians who are staying here for about 6 months; a few Canadians who are staying at Hotel Cozumel where I go swimming regularly; and a nice guy named Ken from BC, who's traveling alone and came here mostly to scuba dive.
Brindle is a very social person. She enjoys meeting people, and helping them find things they need. This week, she met Ken, and introduced us. We've all been hanging out on and off through the week. Today, I was supposed to go for a bike ride with Ken, and then he was supposed to meet Bob and Brindle for din
ner. But Ken never showed up, for either event. That didn't seem like him. So I went to his hotel to try find him/make sure he was OK. I learned that he didn't show up for his scuba dive this morning, and the hotel guests who know him hadn't seen him all day. Security checked his room. He wasn't there. I was worried. So the hotel called the police and the International Hospital which has a decompression chamber. No sign of him anywhere. What else could I do? I asked the hotel to contact me or Brindle if they saw him. About 2 hours later, the hotel called us. Ken was, in fact, in the
hospital's decompression chamber. He had been there since 2 am last night. The decompression chamber is a metal tank about 8' in diameter by 12' long, with little porthole windows. It has benches/seats inside. The hospital was great! They let us see Ken through the little windows and talk to him via a radio on a complex control panel. He was sitting in there with about 4 other people, all breathing with masks that look like WWII gas masks. He's gonna be OK. I am so glad about that! I'm also very grateful that the hotel followed up with us.
But what a crazy thing! Each day, about 2-3 people get the bends while diving here in Cozumel, and need this life saving treatment.
Photos:
#1 - the decompression chamber from the outside
#2-The entrance to the chamber, there seem to be 2 seperate chambers within the one
#3 - the inside where the patients sit. The lady is a doctor in training, the man in the foreground is a technician or nurse or doctor
#4 - the inside of the chamber as seen on a monitor outside from a video inside
Can you imagine spending about 12 hours in there? Ken said there played movies for entertainment!
Hello! Been reading and keeping up! Such adventure, and suspense! Happy you are feeling better! Keep on having fun! 😉
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